Gary S' 2010 Summer Challenge - Bridge

[Gary S]

I thought is was called "stippling" but I wasn't sure whether it had one P or two, so I just used "poking"! I think that Steve may have used the stippling "thumb-on-brush-makes-the-paint-fly-all over" method on that awesome metal building cold storage he built.

Let's see... colored pencils... RoseArt... I assume these are some cheapie map colors... can't imagine that I would have bought expensive ones.

First and foremost ...Friggin' AWEsome!!!!!

Thank you Sir!

The spiral steel tubes are an incredible manufacturing process ... I got to witness it a number of years back. The sheet steel feeds through rollers which wrap it around a mandrel while a mechanical (robotic) welder knits the edges together as the seam passes by. So cool!

Back in the late 80s, we had a customer that did the die rolling method with the straight seam. That was pretty cool too, but it was only small pipe, up to 1 inch. Later we had a customer that made the cardboard tubes, they had two rolls of thin cardboard that went through a gluer and then around the mandril to make the tubes. On the steel pipe you mention, were there two steel coils feeding to the mandril? I assume there was, as one coil winding would be a lotta lotta pressure on the bending.

And when it comes to rain ... I took this from my truck in my driveway, the day I got the photos of those colorful pipes that I gathered for you ... I waited in my truck for 45 minutes for this "Scattered Shower" to pass before giving up and taking a standing up bath with my clothes on!

I definitely appreciate your efforts on my behalf!

More progress - these double bents are a pain in the rump! All the little cross pieces - and bents 4 and 5 have double rows of the cross pipes!

   

[Gary S]

And now just needs the squadron putty on the bottom and some paint.

   

[P5se Camelback]

Gary ... Right, you are! Two rolls of steel and a ton of rollers coming from what seemed like all angles!

And BTW ... Expensive does not necessarily make it good. Everone finds their favorite, the medium that they have come to grips with, that they can manipulate to get the effect they want. It could be expensive or it could be cheap. I used Pilot Razor Point® black nylon-tip pens so much I bought them half-a-dozen boxes of twelve at a time! The same for the Flair® felt-tip pen. For markers I ended up using the AD Markers®, and I bought them a half-dozen at a time ... but I had used the Pantone® Markers for over a decade when someone showed me the AD Markers®. It's all what you get used to. I do like the results you get from using the pencils though, and I salute you for thinking of using them! It never would have crossed my mind. I'll have to think about what other art materials I used to use (and still have a ton of) that I could "repurpose" for model railroading! :arrow: :!:

Your bridge is going to be a real "Cover Girl" when she grows up! :oops:

[Ralph]

Gary your project is turning out so well! Its going to look just like the prototype. I'm really looking forward to more!
Ralph

[Gary S]

And BTW ... Expensive does not necessarily make it good. Everone finds their favorite, the medium that they have come to grips with, that they can manipulate to get the effect they want. I do like the results you get from using the pencils though, and I salute you for thinking of using them!

biL, I'm thinking that these are some cheapie map color type markers from WalMart that were bought years ago for my daughter's school projects. Although they work okay, I think a better quality colored pencil would be the ticket. The good thing about pencils is the control you get versus paint and a brush. The thin lines are so easy to do, and I highly recommend them for some weathering experimentation.

It never would have crossed my mind. I'll have to think about what other art materials I used to use (and still have a ton of) that I could "repurpose" for model railroading!

Whatever you discover, let us know!!

Your bridge is going to be a real "Cover Girl" when she grows up! :oops:

Thanks biL. I'm looking forward to getting it installed on the layout and scenicked. But the scenery is going to have to wait awhile.

[Gary S]

Ralph, thank you kindly.

Here is bent 6 completed. Not completely satisfied, but I've spent enough time on this one now, so time to move on to the next one!

   

[nachoman]

How can you not be "completely satisfied" with that?!!

[Sumpter250]

" Somethng else that Russ and biL and you technical engineering type guys may find interesting - the pipe used on these supports are a spiral welded pipe. "

I regularly drive under a fairly old railroad bridge on Courtland St. in Mundelein,Il. , that is held up by spiral welded pipe bents.......saw the marks in your photos.....and never made the connection ! hock:
I guess I'd better take "inventory" to see what else age has taken from me !! :o

Colored pencils: I've used them to add facial features to HO LPBs......I'll have to rethink their use, and maybe expand it to more things.

Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to show how a "medium" can be used, to inspire others to try it. I believe, Gary, that you've done this, and done it well ! Thank You.

( By the way, nice use of the Squadron Putty, and Testors cement. I'll have to remember that one!!! )

[Sumpter250]

How can you not be "completely satisfied" with that?!!

Because.......

OK. You see what has been done......He knows what hasn't, that he might have, under other circumstances, done.
I can certainly identify with that.

[Gary S]

Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to show how a "medium" can be used, to inspire others to try it. I believe, Gary, that you've done this, and done it well ! Thank You.

You're very welcome. And this is what makes these contests so rewarding. We all learn new ideas from each other, as evidenced by:

( By the way, nice use of the Squadron Putty, and Testors cement. I'll have to remember that one!!! )

Thank you for that idea, Sir!

For those who don't remember, it was S-two-fiddy hisself that gave me that idea. The testors cement mixed in the putty makes it more spreadable and you have a little longer to work with it. I'll be usning that idea alot from now on.

[Gary S]

Kevin, thank you for the great compliment.

On the "not completely satisfied",I think we all are our own harshest critics. When you viewed bent 6, it was pretty much the first time you saw it, so the overall feel and good points stand out. For me, I have been dealing with that thing for 5+ hours and have been struggling with making it look like the prototype. So I am intimately familiar with the compromises and the "good-enoughs" that were aloowed into the project, just as S-two-fiddy metnioned.

As an example, the lower concrete rectangle, as I weathered it, there was a spot under the second pipe from the left that I couldn't get right. And then I did something drastic and really messed it up. Then I had to camoflage it and finally gave up and said "three-foot-rule"!!!!

Although I am pleased with the overall look, there are a few things that just don't match the real bent 6. But with the bridge taken as a whole and installed on the layout, those tiny imperfections will never be noticed, even by me.

[P5se Camelback]

Sumpter250 said ...

"Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to show how a "medium" can be used, ...

Go on, make fun of my "slightly different" vocabulary ... I'm used to it!

My daughter's mother and I were remodeling our kitchen, in our first home together and when I picked up some tiles that she had placed on the floor to see how it would look, and I put them down in a different arrangement, saying, "I think it wants to be like this," she said,

"IT doesn't want to be any way ... it's a floor tile! Boy, am I glad there's no one around to hear you talk that way ... normal people just don't say things like that!"

She had never been around product designers or architects before me.

[Steamtrains]

Needless to say...It's turning out to be a real "beaut..".
Keep in mind that in a couple of years, the prototype will have changed due to weather and such. So it might turn out to be more like yours..!! A case of reality imitating art....

[Gary S]

"I think it wants to be like this,"

Beautiful!

Gus: Appreciate the compliments. And, you're right, I am modeling what it will look like two years from now.

Okay, progress - Working on bents 4 and 5 now, will do them together because they are pretty much the same.

   

And the basic parts so far:

   

[e-paw]

Nice work Gary. This kind of makes me wish that I got involved with this challenge.